{"id":457076,"date":"2026-02-06T06:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/457076\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T06:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:34:08","slug":"carlos-doesnt-exist-without-federer-nadal-and-djokovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/457076\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos doesn\u2019t exist without Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the conclusion of the 2026 Australian Open, the best tennis players in the world had once again flexed their muscles for the world to see with some blistering tennis that got fans fixated to their TVs watching it. Tennis journalist Jon Wertheim argued that this is the highest level of tennis ever seen, while Andy Roddick<\/a> backed that up by saying this generation is learning off the previous one.While Melbourne Park was electric, there was not a lot of thrilling action on the court according to Wertheim. “On the ground, it\u2019s fun. There are tons of fans. But for the first 12 days, there really wasn\u2019t that much to write about,” he stated on Served<\/a>. “The matches proceeded, but there were no real classics. Venus and Stan rolled back the clock, but they didn\u2019t make it out of week one. And then suddenly, the last 72 hours \u2014 boom \u2014 the tournament came alive.”<\/p>\n

However, the story lines at the end are too irresistible not to be drawn into. “That\u2019s what we\u2019ll remember: King Carlos, Novak refusing to surrender to time, Rybakina being back, the Zverev\u2013Sinner semifinal. It ended on a strong note, totally at odds with the opening stretch. Good event overall. Onward we go.”<\/p>\n

Tennis the highest level it has ever been<\/p>\n

Roddick began by discussing the brilliance of Alcaraz, putting his name among some of the greats of the sport despite him being in his early 20’s. “Carlos Alcaraz is now squarely in the company of Edberg, Becker, Wilander, Lendl, Connors, McEnroe, Agassi \u2014 at 22 years old.”<\/p>\n

The former US Open champion was not just focusing on Alcaraz, but all the top players who made the numbers on bot just his show but the likes of ESPN grow. “The reason podcasts like ours exist, the reason ESPN\u2019s numbers are up, is because the athletes are outrageous,” he commented.<\/p>\n

“The women\u2019s final \u2014 two powerhouses beating the hell out of each other under immense pressure. The men\u2019s semis \u2014 nine and a half hours of unscripted drama. Zverev trying to break through. Sinner taking the torch. Novak trying to hang on for one more piece of glory. This is how hard it is to win a Slam. And let\u2019s be honest \u2014 we\u2019re all grifting off their brilliance. No one cares what we say if they don\u2019t deliver.”<\/p>\n

Wertheim continued this discussion with a bold take. “This is hard to quantify, but I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever seen tennis played at a higher level \u2014 men\u2019s or women\u2019s,” he stated. “In track and field, you can look at times. Tennis doesn\u2019t have that metric. But even watching third-round matches, or practices \u2014 the level is extraordinary.”<\/p>\n

Roddick added to the conversation with him stating that each generation learn and improve off each other to get better. “That\u2019s a great point. Carlos doesn\u2019t exist without Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. He\u2019s watched them. He\u2019s absorbed them. He\u2019s literally incorporated Novak\u2019s serve mechanics into his own. Each generation drafts off the last. That\u2019s progress. That\u2019s evolution. That shouldn\u2019t be controversial.”<\/p>\n

Djokovic ‘central to the culture of tennis’<\/p>\n

Wertheim was in full praise of Djokovic, but this time not just for the tennis. “One thing that really struck me: Novak is still central to the culture of tennis,” he said. “He\u2019s congratulating wheelchair players, visiting kids at the hospital, coaching Iva Jovic, high-fiving Carlos after the semis. You don\u2019t see that from athletes at the tail end of their careers.”<\/p>\n

While in the final he eventually failed to get over the line against Alcaraz, it was a hugely impressive showing at Melbourne Park. “He\u2019s winning five-setters, then coming back 48 hours later and competing at the highest level. Time caught him a bit at the end, but big picture \u2014 it\u2019s staggering.”<\/p>\n

Roddick linked 14-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras into this. “Compare that to Pete Sampras. When Pete left, we wanted him around \u2014 but he wasn\u2019t part of the ecosystem anymore. When Jim Connors came back as my coach, he didn\u2019t know where to go at the U.S. Open. He\u2019d never been to the new stadium. Novak, Rafa, Federer \u2014 they\u2019re still part of the fabric.” Nadal was even seen<\/a> at the Australian Open final, watching on as his fellow Spaniard completed the fabled career Grand Slam.Possible trend to stick?<\/p>\n

With more ex-professional still well and truly immersed in the sport, Roddick questioned if this would continue into the future. He would use a case study in the form of 22-time Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf.<\/p>\n

“Tennis takes care of its own. And look \u2014 personalities matter. Steffi Graf is one of the greatest of all time, but she doesn\u2019t want to be celebrated. She\u2019s the most humble champion imaginable. She retired eight or nine years before Serena and still belongs firmly in the GOAT conversation. Just because we don\u2019t see someone doesn\u2019t diminish what they did. And thankfully, with Andre back around, we get to see Steffi more too.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the conclusion of the 2026 Australian Open, the best tennis players in the world had once again…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[7088,6733,49,48,619,82,593],"class_list":["post-457076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-andy-roddick","tag-atp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}